Ignorance
by MyLittleAssassin
Summary: Set during the events of PROTOTYPE . Alex Mercer woke up in the morgue with no idea who he is or what his purpose was. In his journey to discover his own identity and the secrets of GENTEK, he meets a young man named Desmond Miles who he can't help but fall in love with. Alex/Desmond, ProtoCreed.


The bustle of New York citizens was certainly interesting to watch from a high vantage point. Men, women, and children moved about, tightly packed into a large crowd that moved at what seemed like a snail's pace. The combined voices of the patrons created a quiet murmur that softly floated into his ears with only the occasional car horn to shatter the pattern.

He saw children clutching their parent's hands, smiling about the treat they were undoubtedly going to get and laughing along with their siblings. He saw couples cooing loving words to each other and even the occasional arguments between two disagreeing lovers. He saw business men and women talking seriously on their phones, store owners negotiating prices, hot dog vendors shouting to "get'cha hawt dawgs!" and the list went on.

They were all so unsuspecting, so blissfully unaware of the complete danger all of their lives were in. But he knew. Alex Mercer understood. Well, he didn't understand _completely_, but he was going to find out. For the moment, though, he knew enough. What mattered most right now was finding Dana and getting the hell out of there.

His sister. As far as he knew, the only family he had. Though, to be completely fair, he couldn't remember. He had no memories of a father or mother, didn't even have memories of the sister he'd only just found out he had. No memories of them playing as children, their inevitable arguments, or even their birthdays and how they spent them. All he knew was that Dana was his sister, and above all else, her safety was most important.

Odd coming from a man who just took out three helicopters by throwing cars and rooftop air conditioners at them. At the time, he couldn't believe what he'd done. Couldn't believe that he'd taken at least fifty bullets to the chest, jumped over a wall of several stories, sprinted up the side of a building, taken a rocket to the back, and caught and thrown a taxi at a helicopter, effectively destroying it and killing whoever was inside. And he'd done so with ease; incredible ease, he'd realized with immense confusion and slight fear.

Any normal human being wouldn't have survived even one of the first bullets he'd taken to the heart. Okay, so he wasn't _normal_, but if he wasn't human, then what _was_ he? He appeared human, an average every-day man. Handsome face, slim body, regular clothes. But the thing was, he could appear human in _more than one body_.

He hadn't even meant to do it the first time. After he'd destroyed the helicopters, he ran. He could distinctly hear voices whispering in his mind, almost as if the owners of the voices were right in his ear; _"Well, now he's ex Blacklight… His name is…Alex Mercer…"_ Walls of buildings spun around him and he stumbled along, clutching his chest where bullet wounds still gaped.

Despite his enhanced survival and regeneration, the bullet wounds hurt like hell, and it seemed that his newly acquired powers wouldn't save him from the pain of being shot. Breathing heavily, Alex slumped against the back wall of an alley and grimaced at the feeling of the bullet holes closing up.

The next thing he knew, a Blackwatch soldier was cautiously stepping toward him, the barrel of his assault rifle pointed right between his eyes. After confirming his orders and that it was, in fact, Alex Mercer he was pointing his gun at, he shot a single round that hit the virus in the forehead.

He slumped even further, going boneless and appearing dead. Then, without a single thought or an ounce of hesitation, Alex picked the man up when he turned around, flipped him so he was upside down, and let him drop heavily. The loud cracks of shattered neck bones weren't unexpected. The tendrils and whips of biomass that erupted from his own skin and penetrated the dead soldier's were.

It almost felt like the injection of a shot, only larger, less painful, and all over his body. He would almost go as far as to say that it felt _good_. He didn't have time to speculate on it, though, because he was suddenly changing form until he was an exact replica of the soldier he'd consumed. Astonished, he looked himself over, taking note of the uniform he sported and the weapons he had concealed all over his body.

After only a short moment, he was overwhelmed with an immense pain right in the base of his skull. Groaning, Alex clutched his head and pulled at his helmet, desperately trying to ease the pain. Suddenly, memories that weren't his were flashing through his mind, the voices clear and the images distinct.

"_Fucking goose stepping mother fuckers!"_

"_You kiss your mother with that mouth?"_

"_Roger, 2215 Christopher Street. Apartment 15 A. Got it."_

"_Saddle up, you've got a CP. Move it!"_

Then, just as quickly as they had come, the voices and images left him, as did the pain. The same black and red tendrils of biomass as before erupted again, shape-shifting him back to his original appearance. Though the absence of the feeling of an icicle stuck in his brain was quite relieving, Alex still held his hands to his head. He was unsteady on his feet, but he managed to keep his balance by placing a hand on the wall adjacent to him.

"My sister…he knew where she is. …_I_ know where she is. I need to find her. Dana…" Although he was certainly perplexed by what had happened, Alex knew that he had to get to Dana's apartment and he had to get there fast. "Dana. Hopefully she can tell me something."

So he set off again, sprinting up the sides of more buildings and leaping across more great distances. _'2215 Christopher Street, apartment 15 A. Okay, I can do this.'_

Thanks to his newly acquired abilities, what would've taken him some time walking or even by car took him only a matter of minutes. Perched on the rooftop of a building across from Dana's apartment, Alex took in his surroundings. The street was occupied by not only civilians, but Blackwatch soldiers as well.

"They know I'm coming. I need to think about this," Alex said to himself. He couldn't just jump down there and run into the building guns blazing. That would only harm himself and possibly Dana. But with the amount of guards standing by the door, he definitely couldn't sneak in there.

Alex thought long and hard about what he was going to do, and just when it seemed there was no plausible way to get inside the building, he remembered the incident in the alleyway. He'd not only looked or sounded like the Blackwatch commander, he'd _been_ the Blackwatch commander. If he could do it then, why not now? The soldier's below wouldn't know the difference.

Closing his eyes and concentrating hard, Alex willed the same biomass from before to engulf him again. When he emerged, he was once again the perfect replica of a Blackwatch commander.

"Now I can get inside," he said smugly.

Even though he possessed the perfect disguise, he couldn't just jump off the roof of the building and walk inside like nothing happened. So he snuck off to the edge of the building that made a wall of an alleyway and jumped down. When he landed, he made quite a noise and left a good sized crater, but he didn't think anything of it. He collected himself and schooled his expression to one of seriousness—even though he was wearing a helmet that obscured his face—and calmly left the alley, walking with determination and a straight back.

The soldiers guarding the door didn't even acknowledge him, let alone question him. When he made it safely inside, a good distance away from any person, he shifted back to his original self and began searching for Dana's apartment. It probably would've taken him a lot longer if it weren't for the loud noises coming from straight down the hallway.

Settling in a jog, Alex hurried down the hallway and stopped in front of the apartment where all the noise was coming from. _15 A_. The sounds of pained grunts and something breaking came from behind the door; almost as if someone were struggling. Alex was relieved to find the door unlocked. He really didn't want to have to kick it in.

Without hesitation, the virus barged into the room, just in time to see a Blackwatch soldier put Dana in a headlock and hear her yell, "Let go of me!"

"Dana!"

A surge of adrenaline pumped through Alex's veins and, just as she head-butted him, he reached behind Dana to grab the man by the throat, tearing him away from her. Then, to his own slight astonishment and Dana's horror, he punched right through the soldier's chest, effectively ripping out his heart and leaving a gaping hole in its wake. Garbling unintelligibly, the man fell to the floor, a pool of crimson blood soon spreading around him.

Alex turned to Dana, noticing the fear resonating in her bright blue eyes—the same eyes he had. He tried to look at her comfortingly as he reached out to her and said, "I'm not going to hurt you."

Dana flinched away from his offered hug and held her hands up in defense, looking away from her own brother's face and trembling in fear. A pang of guilt and pain pulsed in Alex's chest. He'd only meant to help Dana, to save her; but now it was almost like _he_ was the one she needed protection from.

Speaking softly, Alex said, "We need to leave. There are Blackwatch troops surrounding the building and judging from what just happened, they're looking for you, too. It's not safe for either of us."

Dana lowered her hands when Alex respectfully backed away from her. She looked him over carefully. He looked like her brother. He sounded like her brother. But was this man _really_ her brother? Yes, her brother was never very good with people—even bordering on sociopathic—but he would never kill a man.

They'd never had a good childhood, what with the poverty, alcoholic mother, and the absence of a father figure. Alex had taken beatings, been bullied at school, even stolen from small, family-owned stores when they were younger to protect her and make sure she had everything she needed. But then he left for college, leaving her alone to fend for herself. He still visited her occasionally, but when he graduated college he _really_ left her.

She went on to study investigative journalism and Alex went to work for GENTEK, and it was five years before she even saw him again. She supposed that, in a way, it was good for her. In those many years of independency she'd learned to protect and take care of herself. But now…things were different. She'd just witnessed her brother _murder_ a man in cold blood and act as if it were a normal occurrence. He'd done it her defense, she supposed, so maybe a bit of her old brother was still in there?

"…Yeah," she finally murmured. "Let's go."

"Is there a back entrance?"

"Yeah, there…there's one around the corner. Follow me."

Alex gestured for her to exit the room first, and she did so with only slight hesitation. As promised, a door that led to an alley behind the building was just around the corner when they turned right. The narrow space between buildings was dark, dank, and smelled of garbage, but Alex still motioned for Dana to sit. She did so, uncaring of the damp ground, and pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs.

"I need your help," Alex stated bluntly.

Exhaling, Dana sighed, "Jesus. I knew something fucked up was going on at GENTEK. What the hell happened to you, Alex?" The man just shrugged and shook his head. "I've been researching that whole fucked up organization for weeks. I was poking around to try and get_ you_ information. Don't you remember? You wanted to find out what was going on at the highest levels of GENTEK. Anything about the director of research, do you—"

Dana cut herself off when she noticed the distressed state her brother seemed to be in. He was fidgeting and frowning deeply; the image of a pass card was flashing through his mind. The card depicted a middle-aged man with brown hair and glasses, and the name read _Dr. Raymond McMullen_.

"Are you okay?" Dana asked.

"Do you know what happened?"

Shaking her head, Dana stood from her spot on the ground and said, "I haven't even seen you in five years, not until you show up at my door last month."

Alex turned away. "Is there somewhere we can go?"

"Yeah, I, uh, I know a place."

Twenty minutes later, Dana was pushing a key into the door of some apartment that seemed abandoned.

"So, come in," Dana invited. "It's a friend's place. They're away for a year; Patagonia, or something."

Slowly, almost cautiously, Alex looked around; the place looked as though it had been neglected, save for the desk on the far wall. A single, dim light shone upon it, illuminating the scattered papers, pens, folders, and computer that it held. Behind the still-running computer, a large map of the city was pinned up with red marks littering certain areas.

"Any idea what this all means?" Alex asked.

"No, but I'm going to find out. I mean, this is the story of the century, so somebody's got to know what the fuck is going on." After a brief pause, she continued, "You know, they were waiting for me at my place, so they're most definitely at yours."

"Where do I live?"

Squinting her blue eyes to clear up the details on the map, Dana searched for all of three seconds before pointing to a red dot with her index finger. "There."

"You'll be here when I get back?" Alex asked, suddenly anxious about Dana's safety. "It's best if you stay put. They're probably combing the city for both of us."

As he turned away, Dana answered, "Yeah. I'll be here."

Alex didn't respond. He didn't know how to. He'd only had short, clipped conversations with Dana, but he could tell just from those few exchanged words that she was smart and tough enough to take care of herself, even if only for a while.

**A/N: So this is my first chaptered story. The pairing here will be Alex/Desmond. Sorry Des didn't even show up in this chapter, but this was sort of just a set up. Obviously, this story will take place during the events of [PROTOTYPE], so it will end when the game does.**

**Now, I'm not going to describe every single mission that Alex completes, because that would be a huge pain and I'm sure it would be boring as fuck (which is what I consider this first chapter to be.) However, Alex's progression will impact his relationship with Desmond, so important points in the game will be touched on.**

**I'm planning on making Desmond's introduction in the next chapter, but if he doesn't, he'll be introduced in the third chapter at the latest. Until then, we'll just follow Alex and his fun little journey to find himself.**

**I don't know, every time I play [PROTOTYPE], I just like to imagine how different it would be if Alex also had Desmond at his side. I do the same thing when I play Assassin's Creed. Anyways, I feel like Desmond kind of helps ground Alex, so he has a better understanding of the dos and don'ts in the world, and therefore has a better life after his infection. But that's just my opinion.**

**As always, I hope you enjoyed and leave a review if you wish (in fact, it'd probably be better if you did, if only to let me know if you at least like the concept that I've come up with. But, hey, I can't do anything if you don't.)**


End file.
